Guangzhou held a networking event on March 25 to invite Asian partners to attend the 2017 Fortune Global Forum to be held in December this year.

The event was held at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017 in Boao, a seaside resort of South China's Hainan province.

Cai Chaolin, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, told attendees at the event that Guangzhou is expediting the innovation-driven development and is committed to developing into a network city.

Cai Chaolin, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, delivers a keynote speech at the "2017 Guangzhou·Boao Networking" event held in Boao, March 15 during the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2017. [Photo by Zhao Yingquan/Xinhua]

Guangzhou was chosen to host the event because of its economic prowess, attracting many of the world's biggest companies to invest and set up operations, such as General Electric's Bio-tech Park, Foxconn's 61-billion-yuan ($8.86-billion) 10.5-generation panel plant project and China Huadian Corporation's South China headquarters.

Yossi Vardi, known as the godfather of Israel's hi-tech industry, attended the networking event to promote the Fortune forum to leading figures in politics and business worldwide.

"In Guangzhou, each company gets to keep their own characteristics while they can still help each other, share information and feel the changes of the market, and then they innovate together; this is a great ecosystem, full of vitality and energy," said Vardi.

Yossi Vardi, known as the godfather of Israel's hi-tech industry, attends the "2017 Guangzhou·Boao Networking" event promoting Guangzhou as the host city of 2017 Fortune Global Forum, on March 15. [Photo by Zhao Yingquan/Xinhua]

Guangzhou topped the 2016 list of Chinese Cities of Opportunity jointly released by Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting (PwC) and the China Development Research Foundation, and was recognized as an ultra-large city with the fastest development in the world according to the United Nations (UN)-released World Urbanization Prospects and China Sustainable Cities Report 2016.

"Over the past few years, Guangzhou's development has been obvious to all," Vardi said. "The city has sufficient conditions for high-tech development and high value-added emerging industries."

Boao was the latest stop for Guangzhou's roadshow meeting of 2017 Fortune Global Forum, after Davos in Switzerland, Paris, Hong Kong, New York and Washington DC.